Christians Are Hypocrites

That's what is heard a lot from people who aren't Christians. If you're not a Christian and think Christians are hypocrites, then let me say this:

I agree with you. Absolutely we're hypocrites.

And now, so as to not accuse my own brothers and sisters, I will discuss how this applies to me. But first let me delve a little bit into two standards.

Now I've said, correctly, for quite some time that no one lives up to God's standards. The Bible says "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" and that is absolutely true. There is no way we as mere human beings can live up to the perfect standards of a perfect and holy God. And it was from that position I would say "See that's why we need Jesus Christ -- he solves the problem. He paid the price for our sins so that we don't have to, nor could we if we tried. That is why he is the way, and the only way."

I don't disagree with any of that. In fact, it's even more obvious now that I know Christ and have commands like "love God with all your heart", "love your neighbor as yourself", "be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect" and "do everything for the glory of God". Yeah. Ain't gonna happen. So now that I have come to know the one who saves me from my sins, I see even more so what a sinner I am, as there is no way I can live up to those commands.

But what I'm noticing more and more lately (thank you Prayer Dare) that I don't even live up to my own standards -- not just in the past, but day to day, even with some knowledge of God's Word, connection to God in prayer, his Spirit in me leading me and prompting me, and so on. I was a sinner saved by grace and I'm still a sinner saved by grace. Praise God for grace, and mercy!

Let me throw out some examples:

- It bugs me when someone rattles off a bunch of cuss words in a sentence. But when I'm alone playing Halo (which in itself doesn't glorify God no matter what stupid argument I could come up with to say that it does), I'm no different. You !@#$, that was my rocket launcher!

- It irritates me when someone cuts me off one the freeway, especially without the courtesy wave. I would never do that. Except for when I really need to get over or I'm way behind.

- I tell people in circumstances far less rosy than mine not to worry. After all, Jesus said not to worry. And then when some little thing goes wrong in my perfect little Disneyland world, guess what I do? You'll only need one.

- I have that Bible verse in my office about working hard -- "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men". It's still sitting there above me head when I'm posting something on Facebook or distracted by a Francis Chan video on Youtube. I'm not sure my rationalization about being Mary instead of Martha flies here.

- I put Bible references in my posts that may be there for good reason, or may be there to sound all smart and spiritual. I'm not quite sure, but I do know I don't study the Word for myself a whole lot, and I do know that I just had to look up when name was which for the previous comment.

- I say that the Bible says not to judge incorrectly, and then I turn around and judge incorrectly -- with the top ways being judging with incomplete information, judging by appearance, and, of course, judging hypocritically.

- I sometimes make comments about how girls should dress more modestly, especially when they're coming into church on Sunday morning -- but I tend to (read: always) leave off that part about the motive for saying it being because I am weak and prone to lust.

- I get on my wife's case sometimes about what she spends time and money on, and what she puts into her head from TV. I'm right of course, because all those things I waste time and money on, and the different crap I put into my head is much more holy, right?

- I caution against making checklists and evaluating one's goodness based on performance, and then I end up making checklists and "testing myself" by seeing how many boxes on my "Christian life list" I have checked off.

- I try to force in additional spiritual training with my kids to get one of the above boxes checked off and end up getting frustrated and feeling worse about my own standing with God when it doesn't go right because I crammed it in out of my own effort. That doesn't sound like living by a gospel of grace.

Is that enough? I could keep thinking and going on, but, man, I suck. So yeah, this Christian is a hypocrite.

And guess what? That's pretty much the whole point. It's one of the MANY reasons I needed, need, and will forever need, Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.

Christian, faith in Christ is not a one shot deal. You need him every day. Your sanctification is a lifelong process. Keep searching yourself and asking God to show you what's broken and in need of fixing. Trust me, there's a lot. If you ever think you've arrived, you're either an outright liar, or you're just not wanting to see what's in front of you.

Non-Christian, I'm sorry if you've been turned off to Christianity because of the behavior of any Christian people, rather than the Christian message itself. But please see that such behavior is just further evidence of why we ALL need Jesus Christ.

'Nuff said!